How to Create a Customer Persona for Better Content Marketing

One of the most essential parts of creating a successful Strategic content strategy is knowing who you’re talking to. When you aren’t sure who you are aiming your content at, there’s a higher likelihood that it could go wide of the mark and not resonate, captivate, or convert the right people you’re trying to reach. And this is where customer personas come into play.

What is a customer persona (buyer persona)? A customer persona, or buyer persona, is a semi-fictional profile of a person that represents your ideal customer. It’s founded on actual data, market research, and educated conjecture about customer demographics, behaviours, motivations, and goals. Developing a customer persona enables you to understand what your audience cares about, how they decide and where they hang out online.

Why Customer Personas Matter in Content Marketing

In content marketing, relevancy is the king. If your content isn’t speaking directly to the right one with the right message, it won’t make any impact. This is precisely why you need customer personas — and why they are essential and not just “nice to have” regarding your content marketing strategy.

“They give you an identity of the customer you serve. They enable you to learn who your perfect audience is, what matters to them, and how they consume content. With that knowledge, you can fine-tune your messages to be in their language, about their interests, and solve their problems. And we all know those lead to better engagement, shares, and conversion rates.

Even more importantly, personas help to ensure consistency throughout your content. When writing a blog, creating a social media post, or making a lead magnet, a customer persona gives your team clarity and a singular direction. It answers questions such as: What bleeding do we need to stem? What tone should we use? Which platforms should we target?

Strategic content. The call to action of Content Marketing personalisation is more than just putting someone’s name into an email. It’s about creating content that feels made just for them. Such a customised experience, of course, begins with knowing whom you’re addressing.

Customer personas can also save you from inefficiency. Without those specifics, you risk producing content that’s too general, off target, or irrelevant. Rather than try to be all things to all people and be nothing to no one, you dedicate your time to writing and producing content that impacts your most valuable prospects.

How to Gather Data to Build Your Customer Persona

The making of a compelling customer persona starts with research. In Content Marketing, assumptions are dangerous, so real data is crucial. Research builds reliable character(s). The more you base your persona(s) truthfully, the more accurate and persuasive your content.

Begin by focusing on your current audience. Leverage tools like Google Analytics to determine demographic data (age, gender, location), behavioural data (pages visited, time on site), and traffic sources. This provides an overview of who is already interacting with your content.

Second, leverage CRM data and sales insights. Your salespeople are on the front lines with customers and have insights on the most popular objections, the goals of the customer and how customers buy. Ask them: What questions do potential customers have? What drives their decisions? What are the most common industries or job titles you see?

Customer surveys and interviews are also a goldmine. Contact some of your followers or leads and ask open-ended questions:

• What problems are you looking to solve?
• Where do you typically turn for information?
• What formats do you like us to provide?

Social media analytics, ratings, and reviews also provide insights into sentiment and engagement preferences. Keep an eye on the comments and discussions to find out what language people use to describe their issues, what content they engage with, and how they regard your brand.

Key Components of an Effective Customer Persona

When you gather your data, you must assemble it into a usable, understandable customer persona—the persona for Content Marketing success. Your persona should be detailed enough to serve as a decision-making guideline while simple enough for your team to recall easily.

Below are the elements to include:

Basic Demographics

Start with some basics: The name (whether real or an invented first and last name), age, gender, educational attainment, job title, income range and where they hail from. This information gives their background regarding when and where your audience consumes content.

Professional Background

In what industry do you work? What are their roles and levels of experience? What are their duties and their daily problems? Those responses will give you a sense of their knowledge level and the tone your content should be taking.

Goals and Motivations

What does this individual extrude—personally or professionally? It’s good to know what they ultimately hope to achieve, as this allows you to focus your Strategic content ideas and strategies towards the solutions that bring them closer.

Pain Points and Challenges

What keeps them up at night? What issues are they attempting to address? Acknowledging these by reflecting them in your content demonstrates empathy and places your brand as helpful and pertinent.

Information Sources

Where do they turn for answers — Google, YouTube, LinkedIn, industry blogs? Knowing this lets you publish your content in the right places and formats.

Preferred Content Types

Are they more into videos than blogs? Spending on infographics instead of long-form whitepapers? This is how you deliver your message most effectively.

By assembling these into a crystal-clear story, you’ll have a character for your entire marketing cavalry to rally behind, making sure all of your content is more focused, relevant, and compelling wherever it may end up.

Applying Your Customer Persona to Content Marketing

Creating this customer persona is worthwhile if you will use it. In your Strategic content marketing work, your persona should be central to everything you make, from blog posts and landing pages to social campaigns and email newsletters.

Start with topic selection. Pretty straightforward, use your profile’s goals, challenges and questions to guide brainstorming of resonant content ideas. Instead of trying to imagine what your audience would be interested in reading, you’ll have a guide to creating valuable, newsworthy content.

Then, perfect your tone and voice. A personality aimed at young entrepreneurs might be friendly and informal, whereas more senior professionals will likely prefer a more polished and authoritative voice. Fit your writing style with how your character thinks and talks.

Next, consider content formats and distribution. If your character finds fast-takes more appealing on LinkedIn than longer content, adapt your blogs as carousel posts or short videos. You can develop detailed guides, case studies, or how-to content if they’re in research mode. So it’s determined what type of content and channel you’ll publish to about this persona’s habit.

Your voice should also impact your calls to action (CTAs). What’s one action that would feel natural and helpful for them? Whether downloading a guide, signing up for a newsletter, or booking a demo, always make sure your call to action matches their ability and interest level.

Lastly, let your persona dictate how you measure success. If you see that a piece of content isn’t performing, ask yourself: Was this content aligned with this persona’s needs? Was it on the right platform? Did it take the right voice or form?

Conclusion

Developing an intricate customer figment isn’t merely a branding and positioning exercise – it’s a first step in a more intentionally focused, strategic and results-oriented Content Marketing strategy. In a world where attention is limited and competition is high, knowing your audience to an extent unparalleled by others is a clear strategic advantage.

Instead of creating generic or all-over-the-place content, you’re creating purposeful, persona-driven content targeting the people who will most impact your business. That leads to more engagement, trust, conversions, and ultimately, deeper relationships.

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